26 June 2009

I’m MIA (Missing In Action) now, and I think I’m gone MIA somewhere far away from my HQ in Surabaya for a whole month. So, there a very high possibility that there will be no updates around this time. And yeah, just wait till I get back to my HQ, see you!

13 June 2009

And… I’m back for another event coverage. Pretty quick huh? The interval between the last event and this event didn’t even reach 1 month. Lately, this kind of events have became pretty popular in Surabaya, but all of them were pretty much the same, same participants, same programs, same competitions, etc. So whatever it is, let’s get deep into the event… Oh and forgot to mention, this event was held and ran for 2 days straight: 6-7 June 2009.

Wajuwa

I’ll get to PVCs first, which will lead us to Wajuwa. I guess Wajuwa was the only Japanese PVC seller participant in this event. Saber didn’t participate, but i met the owner there. Wajuwa’s items were pretty interesting: Vita, Teana Lanster, Haruhi Alter, Tsukishiro Mina, Rider maid, Gift Saber, Limit Gunz, Emma Ai, figma Kagamine Rin and Ren, figma Kagamiku, figma Ryoko Asakura, Nendoroid Maritan, Miyuki, Kagamiku, Saber Lion, etc. I bought 2 figures from this store, what are those figures? Wait for the next post XD .

Shinra hobby shop.

Shinra sold some nice figures and they were pretty cheap. Elwing, Alter’s Mitsuru, Shuraki Nida, and Shuraki Rize. I heard Miku GSC also sold here too (with very cheap price around USD 55), except i was late and it was sold out.

A shop with nice Gundam collection.

Stack of Gundam here, including Sword Impulse, Launcher and Sword Strike Gundam, Godkeron, etc. I also saw some figma Miku and figma Shana. Not really interesting, but this store has the most Gundam kits stacked.

Surabaya Hobby Shop with cool RCs.

A store with cool collection of radio controls, complete from the ground, there’s a nice modified Nissan 350Z, air with helicopters and planes, and water with fast boats. It’s Surabaya Hobby Shop, pretty cool, but they also had that scary price tags.

Time Walk.

There was also Time Walk, a board game selling store, with free demo. I never heard about the games they sold, but they look interesting. Ever heard about Carcasonne? They also had that game sold back there.

Dream High Studio.

Dream High Studio, they got some pretty nice handmade artworks. I thought they also had BJD or Dollfie Dream, because as i remembered the last year, there was a pretty similar participant with BJD and advertising it. After seeing BJD booming in Danny Choo, i too want to take a look of a real BJD myself.

ISCC.

ISCC (Indonesia Soul Calibur Comunity), also participate in this event and held 3 games competitions. At the first day, they held Street Fighter 4 tournament, the second day, they held Soul Calibur 4 and Mario Cart NDS tournament. I didn’t participate this time.

And another nice show from the committee, they had a nice opening dance, here are some photo of it:

One of the girl on the stage.

The main dancer (queen).

And the main boy dancer.

I failed bringing cosplay photos in the last event, but this time, i got some number of cosplayer photos. I did most of them candidly, so here we go:

Anya cosplayer, without her real hair, nice costume though.

Arale and the poo from Dr. Slump, they won the best cosplay award.

Archer, ugly.

Someone from Sengoku Basara (the Masamune Date wannabe).

Da Qiao, or is she Xiao Qiao?

Darth Maul, pretty scary.

Someone fat with radiator on his sword.

A girl with short kimono and the other with Cardcaptor Sakura’s school uniform.

Sailor Moon, classic.

Stormtrooper, with light saber surrounding him.

Stormtrooper with friends.

Those warriors from Japan and China in group.

A sort of cute girl with cool cosplay, except i don’t know the character.

Yue Ying cosplayer.

Well, that’s all the event coverage. Event like this has became more and more monotone, with the same programs and all. The number of participant that sells Japanese PVC figures has dropped significantly, resulting drop of my interest in this event. But oh well, sometimes this kind of event brings me a chance to find some hidden treasure. XD

07 June 2009

I’m back for another figure review. This time, i did a photo session using white background. Thanks to my photography friends Joan who lent me a Canon SpeedLite 430EX and Jaya who helped me with lighting settings. So here’s the result. Please note that not all of these photos aren’t purely white, some of them are edited using photoshop to get a white background.

So let’s move on to the figure itself: Ryougi Shiki.

From Kara no Kyoukai, manufactured by GSC.

Once again, she’s Ryougi Shiki, a character from Type-Moon’s anime: Kara no Kyoukai, and this figure is manufactured by Good Smile Company. I really like this figure, because she radiates elegance and beauty. I haven’t watched Kara no Kyoukai but i know she’s a total beauty.

Between Shiki and Mikuru.

Before deciding on this figure, i had a hard time picking between this figure or Mikuru gothic by Griffon Enterprises. And know, i think i took the right decision. I never know someone with review of Gothic Mikuru, and i think this figure is totally better than that Gothic Mikuru. The other reason why i picked this is her Yukata.

Cute blushes.

I think i got new habit of taking more close up photos since i got my macro lens. This close up photo is one of the result of my new habit. She got a nice pair of blushes. I don’t know why GSC added this blushes on the cool Shiki.

Plain pose?

Some of you may think that this figure has a plain pose compared to the other figure. Yes, that’s right, i think so too. Alter released so many dymanic posed figures lately, why not GSC? But every figure has its own interesting part, and in this figure, pose isn’t that interesting part.

Is she smiling?

I’ve been thinking and trying to figure this out: is she smiling? It’s pretty hard to say… Her lips looks pretty flat from a certain side, but from other side, she looks like she’s smiling. What do you guys think?

No busty chest, sorry…

Chest? Err… no, she’s not that busty. Maybe that yukata she wears doesn’t really reveals the size. I heard that Japanese girls should NOT wear pantie and bra IF they wear yukata. Is that true? If that’s really true, then Shiki isn’t wearing anything down there… XD

Great paintings!

What i really like from her yukata is the patterns on it. Let’s take a closer look on this one. And wow, i think GSC put a lot efforts while doing this. Painting very small (even smaller than 1 cm) flowers on her yukata isn’t an easy task. GSC really amazes me this time.

Great paintings also on her obi.

And also on her obi (*CMIIW* it’s the belt, i remembered it’s called obi), there are more beautiful flower painting on it. I guess i never knew there were such details painted on obi.

The backside of her obi.

And this is the backside of her obi. Also painted and sculpted nicely. I guess this is how obi is tied. I also never really noticed something like this in the anime. A girl with yukata always radiates elegance and beauty.

Her right arm and sleeve.

Uhh… i can’t really say much about this part, but she got nice sleeve with that blowing wind effect on it. So just enjoy!

The left sleeve from above.

And here’s a photo of the left sleeve from the above. It does look like wind blowing to her right. Sometimes, adding blowing wind effect on the figure could be nice, another great job from GSC.

Her “nothing special” left hand.

Her left hand, nothing special, really… I was expecting something like painted fingernail (just like what Alter did on their figures), but this is GSC, and GSC has its own way to make a figure.

Her right hand.

And this is her right hand, holding her katana. Eventhough her fingernails aren’t painted, GSC still did a pretty nice job on the sculpting. It looks pretty detailed.

A very detailed sword hilt.

And we’re moving on to her katana. And, yeah, the hilt part is nicely done. And it’s also pretty detailed… You know… i think i said “pretty detailed” too much this time. Detail isn’t everything, but if you’re doing figure photoshoot, try to get something unusual, something that our usual eyes can’[t see but a camera’s lenses can.

Very sharp katana.

Her katana looks so sharp that it looks like it really could kill someone. It also got a nice paintjob, makes it looks like it made from a real metal. It’s a pretty long katana, just as long as Nietono no Shana.

“Toward the Battle”

I think this is the best photo so far because i put a concept (meaning) in it. Also with a title to give more meaning. The title is: “Toward the Battle”. You can laugh if you want to XD .

Yet another patterns beautifully done by GSC.

Moving on to the lower part of her yukata. Can you see white pattern on it? It surely is beautifully painted, nice job once again for GSC. FYI, those patterns are all over her yukata, not only on the lower part of her yukata.

A small tissue right under her right foot.

Remember about my Shiki got leaned? Yes, and in those photos above, you can see that she stands straightly. At that time, i used a small ripped tissue, folded it, and it became a small supports. That’s also the reason why i used cotton to cover that tissue (although the other reason i used cotton is to make a snowy effect).

POI: yukata.

Can you guess the POI of this figure? It’s her yukata (including her obi). She radiates elegance and beauty of a Japanese lady in that yukata. And with all that patterns and paintings on the yukata, it makes her a perfect Japanese lady.

Well, at least that’s all i can give for today. Expect another event coverage for the next post. So… see you at the next post!

04 June 2009

Man, I’ve been busy last week of this semester and I can’t even keep up with updates. So well, in this small chance, i tried to pull myself and did a post. It’s a yet another review of Sakagami Tomoyo, a figure manufactured by Kotobukiya. Well.. just let’s get it on to the review.

Oh and forgot to mention, this was the first time i used my Canon 100mm macro lens for full photo session, so enjoy the new (if you can feel the difference) style of my photos!

My favorite Clannad girl.

Tomoyo is my favorite character from Clannad. I also like Kyou, but i didn’t really like the figure. I also discussed about choosing this Tomoyo or Kyou with my girl, and she said she didn’t like Kyou (the figure, not the character).

Still has that Key-ish art styled face.

This figure is the re-run version of Tomoyo from Kotobukiya. It has been released a long time ago, even before Clannad was aired by Kyoto Animation. That’s why this figure lacks one thing: KyoAni art style! Yes… for Key / Visual Art’s art style, this figure could be great, but not too good for me.

No summer uniform?

Oh and for your information, this figure is the only Clannad character that doesn’t wear Clannad’s school uniform (forgot the school’s name). Personally, i prefer Tomoyo in her summer uniform, but a casual clothes isn’t bad either. –_-b

Lacks of expression?

Back to her face, yeah… this part of her is the most annoying part IMO. First, she lacks of KyoAni art style. And next, she lacks of expression. Yeah… i do think that she need some kind of smile or whatsoever to enlighten her face and adding more expression in her face. But anyway, the blushes are kinda nice touch though.

Kotobukiya did her too rough.

Just as predicted, this time Kotobukiya didn’t do their homework too well. I can see seamlines right above her front bang. I think Kotobukiya did their job too rough on this figure. But don’t worry about the white dots on her hairband, those are dust :P .

Nice long hair.

I like girl with long hair, and that also goes for Tomoyo. It’s pretty nice seeing her long and straight hair goes down freely. But yeah, Kotobukiya screwed it up again. Her hair isn’t that soft. And there’s so little artistic touch on her hair. Maybe it’s some kind of an old sculpting style.

Standard size… kinda disappointing.

IIRC, she got a nice big chest in the anime, but where’s that big *cough*boin-boin oppai*cough* go in this figure? At least she still got some standard size on her chest XD . But hey, i think this figure doesn’t really emphasize on sexiness.

Glossy hand.

Her right arm grabbing the pan. You can see that right on her fingers, there’s a glossy and rough part. I guess this is just another flaw from Kotobukiya. This stuffs really make me think twice on why i decided to get this figure.

Ouch… another flaw on her hand.

Hey, that flaw doesn’t stop on her right but also her left hand. Yeah, that’s Kotobukiya, sometime they can make it good, but sometime they screwed it up. Never know why.

Looking delicious?

I think this part is the most popular part of this figure, the pan with stew in it. I don’t know what’s she cooking though. Looking delicious? No, i really don’t think so. But it’s pretty nice tough from Kotobukiya to add some small details like this stew.

Cute bear slippers.

I never knew Tomoyo wore this slippers back in the anime. Never really noticed it. But it’s cute and suits her perfectly. Except for the rough finish and poor paintjob. Just watch around the bear’s nose. The brown skin paint is overflowing to the white part.

No… nothing…

And this is the left one. Nothing in particular, so just skip it…

Mandatory pantie(?) shot.

Even her pantie doesn’t look really appealing to me. Well, it’s not really a pantie anyway. I think it’s her stockings. From down here, i can see more of Kotobukiya’s rough job, right on her skirt. But yeah… i still don’t know why i bought her.

POI: apron.

POI of this figure is her apron. Yeah, she’s not a maid, and she doesn’t wear that gothic styled or maid outfit, she only wear casual black sweaters, brown skirt, and an apron. But she could attract some fans including Optic. I guess her popularity does help on selling this figure XD . Can we expect Alter releases on Clannad characters?

Yeah that’s it! So… what do you think about the photos using new lens? Just share it here. So… see you at the next post!

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About Me

I'm just a college student, specialized in informatics engineering.
Studying in iSTTS, a good informatics college in Surabaya.
I'm also a photographer, but still in beginner level.
Of course, i also have other hobbies, that is anime and games.
As for anime, other than watching animes and reading mangas, i also collect anime figures, and i do figure photography too.